A Bradford dad who has not seen his daughter since her mother took her to the United States has called for the laws governing international family disputes to be changed.

John Brooke, 52, who has been involved in a five-year battle to find his daughter, claims the Family Court system is failing distressed parents whose children have gone missing.

And he believes the adversarial nature of the family court system, which he says sets husband against wife, is not an effective way of settling heart-rending disputes.

Now he has set up an Internet support group called the Children Parent Rights Research Institute for people going through the same trauma.

And he has welcomed public support from Cherie Blair QC for a similar case involving the wife of Britain's ambassador to Washington whose two sons have been abducted by her German ex-husband.

Mrs Blair is backing Lady Meyer's attempts to get her sons back from Germany after their father refused to return them while the couple fought a custody battle. She hasn't seen them for five years.

Mr Brooke said: "I'm glad that a leading public figure like Cherie Blair has raised the issue because it is one of the biggest civil rights abuses facing western governments.

"It's terrible the way in which fathers are having their children taken from them. It is not an exaggeration to say that governments in the western world are stealing our children. As long as we have a family law court system like this, it will continue to happen.

"I would like more public figures to give attention to this subject."

Mr Brooke has not seen his 14-year-old daughter Demelza for five years after her mother went on the run with her in the United States.

His former wife, Macau-born Angie Cheung, has evaded legal attempts to return Demelza to Mr Brook by moving from state to state in the US, avoiding court orders and warrants for her arrest.

Mr Brooke, who went on hunger strike in 1995 to publicise his fight, also believes that the strain of searching for his daughter contributed to him being diagnosed as a diabetic in 1995.

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